“We have not been at all amused by the travel chaos and all the distress and worry the volcano has caused, we have been very sad about that, but there has been a lot of black humour about the pronunciation.”

Although Icelanders colloquially refer to the volcano as Eyjafjallajökull, Miss Gunnarsdottir explained that this is not in fact its real name.

“Eyja means island, fyalla or fyjoll means mountain, and jökull means glacier, so the name actually means the island mountain glacier,” she said.

“The mountains under the south part of the glacier, which is where the volcano is, are actually called the island mountains, or Eyjafyoll. Which I suppose would be much easier for you to say.”